Clients and engagements

An annual tax engagement and a monthly bookkeeping engagement may belong to the same client, but they have different fees and delivery dates. Keep each engagement attached to the client account. Partner owns the commercial relationship; Engagement Manager owns the delivery plan. Billing Specialist uses the client’s agreed billing terms when following up a charge.

The client record holds the primary contact, industry and owning practice. The engagement holds its own manager, contract value and budget hours. This gives a manager a clear starting point when a client asks whether additional work belongs within the existing fee or needs a separate engagement.

• Client ownership. Assign the account owner and practice before accepting new work. A client marked Prospect can become Active when the relationship begins. Use on hold when the team needs to pause activity and explain the reason to the manager responsible for delivery.
• Engagement scope. Choose Fixed Fee, Time And Materials, Retainer or Filing Deliverable Billing to describe the commercial arrangement. Record the agreed dates and fee alongside the hours budget. The billing type gives the team context for reviewing delivered work.
• Delivery position. Move an engagement from Proposed to Active when delivery begins. Keep on hold, Completed and Cancelled meaningful to the team. A completed engagement can still need a collection follow-up, so review its payment position separately.

Decide who maintains client billing terms and who can change an engagement’s agreed fee. Bring the engagement letter and current scope to the discussion. Record supporting documents with the correct client or engagement reference, and agree how the team will distinguish work performed this period from older imported history.

Choose a consistent naming convention for recurring work. An engagement name should make the intended assignment clear without relying on the manager’s memory. Agree how the owning practice differs from the individual account owner, especially when a tax practice serves a client introduced by a bookkeeping team.

Rehearse a fixed fee annual accounts engagement that starts while its client already has an active bookkeeping assignment. Partner confirms the client and existing billing terms. Engagement Manager creates the new engagement with its own dates, fee and hours budget, then asks Staff Accountant to identify the correct engagement before recording work.

Next, pause the annual accounts assignment while a client document is outstanding. Check that the engagement board shows on hold for that assignment and leaves the bookkeeping engagement Active. Ask Billing Specialist to find the original client terms without copying the annual accounts fee into the client record.

Finish by comparing the signed scope with the engagement schedule. Resolve ambiguous names or ownership before importing the rest of the client list. The pilot should leave the team able to identify the work, its owner and the fee being monitored.

• Active Clients — Find current client relationships with their account owners and billing terms.
• Engagement schedule — Review engagement start and end dates alongside the responsible manager.
• Engagement board — Follow the position of each assignment without mixing separate client engagements.

Use client to active engagement to rehearse the opening handoff. Continue with work to reviewed delivery when staff begin recording effort.